Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Though we all know where Grey’s trilogy is going to end up, it’s all about the journey with Becoming Marie Antoinette (Ballantine), the first of three novels featuring the doomed queen to be penned by newcomer, Juliet Grey.

We are promised that, with this series, we’ll come to know a kinder, gentler Marie “Off With Their Heads” Antoinette. And, certainly, with this first installment, that’s true. Here we meet the 10-year-old Austrian archduchess, Maria Antonia, who before her marriage, must be transformed from provincial nobel to a young woman who will be queen.

Fans of historical fiction will eat this one up. It’s engaging, smart and authentic. Grey has done her homework.